The present invention relates to baseball training mats. More specifically, the present invention provides a batting stance training mat for properly positioning a user when striking a ball with a bat.
Teaching young children the mechanics of how to hit a baseball or softball can be difficult due to the required body positioning and coordination. Proper foot placement within a batter's box is necessary for learning how to hit a baseball. Most children learning to swing a bat require a coach to continually position and reposition their feet near a tee or home plate. Once a child swings the bat, the child often forgets exactly where their feet are supposed to be positioned while hitting. The coach then must attend to the child and reposition their feet, which detracts from other responsibilities of the coach. Therefore, a training mat having indicia for designating proper foot placement while in a batting stance is needed.
Devices have been disclosed in the known art that relate to baseball training mats. These include devices that have been patented and published in patent application publications. These devices generally relate to baseball training aids and softball training aids for positioning the feet of a user when in a batting stance.
These known art devices have several known drawbacks. Some devices do not include indicia on both sides of the training mat for designating a left-handed and right-handed batting stance. Some training mats fail to include different sets of indicia for positioning a batter in order to hit balls to different directions in relation to a baseball field, such as left field, center field, and right field. Further, some devices do not include an indicia on an end panel used to position foot placement of a second user, such as a catcher, coach or umpire. Finally, some training mats fail to include indicia shaped as foot prints that designate proper foot placement for a user.
In light of the devices disclosed in the known art, it is submitted that the present invention substantially diverges in design elements from the known art and consequently it is clear that there is a need in the art for an improvement to existing baseball training mats. In this regard the instant invention substantially fulfills these needs.